The vinyl resurgence shows no sign of slowing, so here's a great budget turntable for your newly thrifted LPs.

August 22, 2006

Update: The GP2X is now available in the USA directly from Dynamism, and we're looking forward to serving up a review sometime in the not-so-distant future. In the meantime, here's a rebroadcast of our introductory post from last February:

The $179 $199 Gamepark GP2X is a cool little handheld game console from Korea. What makes it cool? Well, it's an open-source platform based on Linux, designed to encourage homebrew game creation and world domination by cute but lethal cartoon penguins. Someone's already ported a version of the MAME arcade emulator which supports over 1000 vintage games. Other noteable hacks include Commodore 64 / SNES / SEGA Genesis / Atari ST emulators and a credible port of Open Transport Tycoon Deluxe (an open-source SimCity).

An S-Video TV output cable costs $10 and lets you play games on your big screen at resolutions up to 720 x 480. The handheld itself features dual ARM processors (one core, the other for graphics), 64MB RAM, 64MB flash memory, an SD card slot, USB 2.0, and a 320 x 240 color LCD. It's also capable of playing video in a multitude of formats: MPEG, MPEG4, AVI, DivX, XVid.

August 08, 2006

Handheld LED games were all the rage in the early 1980s. Technology-hungry youngsters lapped up portable units that featured rudimentary grids of blinking LEDs and a handful of annoying sound effects. Atari was anxious to enter the market, but they didn't want to introduce a 'me too' product.

Atari's solution was the Cosmos, an intriguing tabletop LED game that used dual-image holographic backdrops to give the illusion of a 3 dimensional playing field. The unit was pre-programmed with 8 games that were enabled by special cartridges containing nothing more than a holographic backdrop and a series of openings to select the corresponding game in the unit. It was a brilliant approach that would have allowed Atari to offer add-on games for as little as $10 each.

The game play itself wasn't revolutionary: the device contained a simple 7 x 6 grid of red LEDs that could be programmed to play games such as Space Invaders, Superman, and Asteroids. Atari produced a short pre-production run of units and even printed advertising brochures and product boxes before pulling the plug because of a shortage of funds.

We'll never know whether this machine would have been a success, but the Cosmos is definitely one of the most collectible games in history -- only a couple of working units are known to exist. [Image from an Atari ad scanned by atarimuseum.com]

August 07, 2006

The gaming industry has always been cut-throat, with each company looking to obliterate the competition by introducing 'must have' systems. Nintendo often takes enormous risks to keep market share. In the mid-1990s, Nintendo took their most extreme gamble so far by introducing the Virtual Boy 3D gaming system. This odd-looking cross between a Viewmaster and Virtual Reality goggles attempted to redefine the portable console world. Unfortunately, the technology wasn't quite ready for prime time -- not only was the system bulky and power hungry (6 AA batteries lasted a mere 7 hours), it displayed images in four ghostly shades of red & black.

The device used a complicated dual LED/mirror system (licensed for a reported $5 million from an American company) to generate a 384 x 224 pixel monochrome image for each eye. The oscillating mirrors generated a distinctive buzzing sound while running and proved too fragile for a portable system: one good drop and things would never be the same again in Mario Land.

Nintendo probably intended to release a system that was small enough to wear like goggles or large sunshades. Unfortunately, the final machine weighed 760g and required a fiddly 'bipod' stand. This made it impossible to use as a truly portable system -- it was too unwieldy to take to school, play outdoors or use in a vehicle. Probably the only thing that kept Nintendo from canceling the project was that it was helmed by visionary Nintendo designer Gunpei Yokoi (the driving force behind the Game & Watch, Game Boy and other landmark products).

The system was introduced in the USA with much fanfare on August 14, 1995. Unfortunately, customers were immediately underwhelmed by the nightvision-style red display and awkward shape. It carried a price tag of $179.95 but failed to sell well against less gimmicky full-color handheld devices. The system sold a mere 750,000 units worldwide and was relegated to the bargain bin shortly after the Christmas season. I've been waiting over a decade for someone to introduce an improved 3D console based on modern full-color technology, but perhaps the moment has passed.

May 20, 2006

Modojo is taking a nostalgic look back at the SEGA Game Gear this week, following up on their recent piece about the quirky NEC Turbo Express.

"The most important purchase that I made as a child was a Sega Game
Gear. I had scrounged for several months to buy what was at the time a
very hot piece of hardware, a portable that had a palette of 4,000 plus
colors and played Sega videogames. It was and still is a cherished
system, one that I played obsessively, not because it was the greatest
thing ever, but simply because it was all that I could have. My parents
were strict when it came to games, and if they had had their way, I
would have been playing an Atari 2600 all through high school."

May 08, 2006

Justin at Modojo recently published an extensive ode to the NEC Turbo Express handheld gaming unit. It was capable of displaying 482 simultaneous colors on a miniscule backlit LCD, and six AA batteries gave it serious heft to fight off would-be muggers and real-world super villians. It sold for $299 and games came on credit-card shaped TurboGrafx-16 HuCards.

"Ultimately, I went with the Game Gear and it was a solid decision. NEC
didn't last much longer in the videogame market, and the Turbo Express
became extinct, but I never forgot about it, so a couple of years ago I
scored a mint unit off Ebay and I've been beaming ever since. However,
the Turbo Express, while cool, isn't exactly great technology today, or
even back in the day."

April 20, 2006

I fondly remember Coleco's line of miniature arcade machines from the 1980s (profiled right here by Bohus a few weeks ago). It looks like someone is at it once again, although not with the same flair and build quality. The new Frogger and Space Invaders offer color LCD figures instead of the beautiful (and expensive) VFD displays of earlier tabletops. That said, these look like an entertaining way to spend $25.

April 13, 2006

Taiwanese manufacturer BenQ is the latest company to develop a tiny handheld unit that includes ten titles ported from the SEGA Game Gear and Master System. Details are hard to come by at this point (I don't speak Chinese...), but my guess is that the unit will offer a serious dose of Sonic fun along with mp3 playback. The unit includes an SD card slot so it should be able to run other games and perhaps even play teeny-tiny videos.

March 18, 2006

At the height of the Pac-Man craze, video game craze, and handheld electronic craze, Coleco created mini versions of famous arcade games. They started with Pac-Man, but it wasn't long before Ms. Pac, Galaxian, Centipede, and others joined the family.

It's rather impressive how much of the flavor of the arcade originals these little versions could capture within the limits of VFD (vacuum fluorescent display) technology. The games were colorful (unlike battleship gray LCD, or red blip LED games), had a nice assortment of sound effects and music, and added simultaneous two player modes so that both you and your brother could crowd around your 9" high personal arcade cabinet.

March 17, 2006

It appears that Taiwanese manufacturer Lavod is the most recent company to license classic SEGA titles for use in a portable MP3 player/handheld. The tiny PocketPlay 320 (loaded with 20 SEGA titles) and 350 (loaded with 10 titles, despite the higher model number) units feature 2.4-inch TFT color displays. They include games like Sonic Chaos, Ecco the Dolphin, Sonic Spinball, Columns and Fantasy Zone. They both apparently have TV outs, allowing you to burn in enjoy Ecco the Dolphin in all its glory on your 50-inch plasma. The 350 also features an SD Card slot and a USB 2.0 port (and one would assume that the 320 also has some sort of portage for uploading tunes)

No word on price, but they were supposed to be rolled out at this year's CeBIT show in Hanover which ended on March 15th. The Lavod site doesn't have any information on these little units (I never understand companies that shoot themselves in the foot like that), but pics and info are filtering out through the blogsphere. Lets hope these devices are affordable and fun to play.

March 08, 2006

The brilliantly misguided folks over at iPodLinux have succeeded in porting a very limited version of the MAME Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator to the iPod. So far, it only plays Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man on the iPod Nano and 5G. I look forward to a few more games coming soon, although I suspect the gamer-hostile clickwheel interface will turn out to be a significant hindrance for those games requiring anything more than 8-directional joysticking.

Don't hold your breath for an iPod version of Defender unless Apple adds a few more controls to their future hardware. Still, this thing is tons cooler than paying $1.99 to watch a teeny version of a TV program that aired last night.

March 07, 2006

I raved about the $179 Gamepark GP2X open-source gaming unit and its ability to play many classic games last month. It looks like Gamepark is planning a couple of sequels, including this tiny $150 XGP Mini. Like its older brother, it sports 64MB flash memory, an SD card slot, and a 320 x 240 color LCD. The internal RAM is cut down to 32MB, which will definitely have an impact on compatibility with the rest of the family (if that is the plan). Let's hope this little monster is also released as an open-source unit.

March 04, 2006

Engadget presented a surprisingly Retro look back at a few decades of handheld electronic games yesterday. Perhaps they're discovering that an endless stream of almost identical mp3 players and mobile phones is... umm.... getting a bit old? No matter. The post is actually a fairly nifty overview of the industry, starting with Mattel's early LED games and continuing on to the open-source Gamepark GP2X. There's no mention of Coleco's cool units with the funky glowing VFD displays (along with a few others), but it's a nice look at the majors.

January 12, 2006

Introduced in late 1995, the SEGA Nomad was a neat piece of work. It was conceived as a handheld version of the Genesis console, with a decent 320x224 pixel backlit 3.25-inch color LCD display. The little box could also serve double-duty as a TV-based home console: there was an A/V output and plug for a second control pad. It required six AA batteries, making it a bit clunky to lug around, and the backlit display and dual processor design chewed through a set of batteries in less than two hours.

Sales of the Nomad suffered because it was released near the end of the Genesis console's lifespan, and wasn't compatible with Genesis accessories such as the 32X (32-bit console add-on) and SEGA CD. The price was eventually reduced well below $100, but few people took the bait. Pity. I'd quite like one.

January 09, 2006

The MicroVision was released by Milton Bradley in 1979. It has the distinction of being the first cartridge-based handheld gaming unit with an LCD display. I'm happy to say that I spent a few minutes playing with one of these when I was a kid, because very few still work today. LCD technology was in its infancy in the late 1970s, and the MicroVision's crude 16 x 16 pixel monochrome LCD display suffers from screen rot, often resulting in a forever-darkened display, even if the rest of the unit works perfectly.

The main unit was little more than a housing for the display, batteries, switches and knob controller -- the brains of each game was a combined microcontroller/memory chip inside the clip-on game cartridge itself. This enabled the manufacturer to use different microcontrollers depending on the complexity of the game, and MB used both the 4-bit TMS 1100 and 8-bit Signetics/Intel 8021. Each cart contained 2 KB ROM and 16 bytes of RAM (partitioned as 32 4-bit nibbles).

The carts were extremely susceptible to damage from static discharge, making each cartridge swap a potential game of Russian Roulette. A total of 13 titles were released between 1979 and 1981, including the Block Buster pack-in cartridge. The MicroVision was a brilliant concept that was a few years ahead of technology, as Nintendo was to prove a decade later with the smash-hit Game Boy and Tetris.

Trivia for those who stuck with me through this entire post: The MicroVision was designed by Jay Smith, who went on to design the astoundingly cool Vectrex game system.

January 05, 2006

Ben Heckendorn hacks classic videogame consoles to create fantastically cool limited edition handheld units. I mentioned his work a few days ago, but I neglected to mention his incredible 574 page book: Hacking Video Game Consoles. It guides you through the assembly of portable versions of four common home gaming consoles: the Atari 2600, Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo and PlayStation One.

To make things even more appealing, he offers pre-built case and decal sets priced from $55 to $75. All you have to do is strip the guts out of your donor system and TV/display, make some modifications to reduce the profile of the boards, and install them in their shiny new home. You'll need to feel comfortable with a soldering iron and itty-bitty electronic parts before tackling these projects.